The consumer protection association Foodwatch published a survey this Wednesday, January 15, stating that the cheapest products in supermarkets are the sweetest. “Canned peas, sliced bread, pizza, mayonnaise or biscuits: sugar is everywhere and especially in cheap products from distributor brands,” warns the association.
The Minister of Health, Catherine Vautrin, reacted this Wednesday to this investigation on RMC-BFMTV. He asks manufacturers to “make a real effort” in this regard. “It is a matter of prevention,” said the minister.
“Go further” in Nutri-Score
Foodwatch analyzed more than 400 products in 12 food categories. This demonstrates “a worrying trend,” according to the association: “if you want to avoid or at least reduce added sugars in your diet, you will have to take more money out of your wallet.”
An observation that RMC Conso also makes on the shelves: in a Carrefour establishment, for example, the can of Carrefour Classic peas, sold at 3.39 euros per kilo, contains 4.6 g of sugar per 100 g of product, while The D’Aucy brand, sold at €4.82/kg, contains only 2.6.
As a reminder, excessive sugar consumption promotes the appearance of obesity, diabetescardiovascular diseases and certain cancers, according to the National Health Security Agency (ANSES).
Faced with Foodwatch’s observations, Catherine Vautrin considers that “it is necessary to go further” in the Nutri-Score, without specifying how. “I am very attentive to Nutri-Scores, because Nutri-Score allows our fellow citizens, when they buy, to consult the classification of the product,” she says.
Labeling of products according to the nutriscore is not mandatory in France, which allows certain brands not to adopt it or even reject it. This is what Danone did, announcing in September 2024 that it was “phasing out” the Nutri-Score from its products to protest against a new labeling calculation method that lowered the scores of some of them.
Source: BFM TV
